Not just trash talk: A goal to clean up neighborhood

FRENCH CAMP - Otis "Red" Shaw's crusade against trash in his neighborhood began more than 50 years ago.

Zachary K. Johnson

FRENCH CAMP - Otis "Red" Shaw's crusade against trash in his neighborhood began more than 50 years ago.

He was 9 years old, and his uncle was in charge of the kids for the day.

"He said, 'Let's go for a walk,' " said Shaw, who is now 65 and still living on the same property he has for his entire life. He started with discarded soda bottles. "A penny apiece. We'd earn enough to go fishing."

Pretty soon, Shaw said he would get sick of passing by the same old trash on the regular hunts for bottles, so he started picking that up, too.

The regular patrols of the neighborhood stopped when he started working better-paying jobs, though Shaw said he would still always pick up trash along the way if he happened to walk past it.

But about a year and a half ago, he started up on the trash patrol again, though his area of coverage is smaller because of age and medical problems, he said while sitting on his South McKinley Avenue porch.

Or, as Shaw puts it, "I'm blind, crippled and crazy now." He counts knee replacement, post-surgical infection and cancer among the medical maladies he's suffered over the years.

His bad eye is partially blind, his worse eye he covers with a black eye patch. The white hair sticking out from beneath his 49ers baseball cap used to be have color, he said, and everybody still calls him Red.

Freight trains pass across the street from his home near the Roth Road intersection, in an area south of Stockton, where homes push up against rail yards, trucking companies and agricultural fields. It's also on the fringe of unincorporated French Camp. One side of Roth Road is in the county, the other is in Lathrop.

His route takes him past the Sharpe Army Depot, where he had worked for 28 years before he retired about 20 years ago.

With a rake and his bare hands, he picks out recycling, pulls weeds and gathers up trash. What he doesn't put into piles along his route he brings home with him to throw away, because public services don't always pick up the piles, he said.

He gets angry at the speeding trucks and other traffic that passes on the roads without sidewalks - he said he's had to dive out of the way of approaching traffic into a ditch by the tracks six times. When taking a visitor on a tour of just a short part of his route, he manages to pull weeds, pick up a scraped CD and stuff everything into a discarded shopping bag already half-filled with garbage.

Even with a cane, he kept up a brisk pace. "You'll have to excuse me; I walk fast. My dad was a drill instructor." Shaw said he's lost 107 pounds and collected $591 by recycling in the past year and a half. Somebody appreciates the work enough to put a beer on ice next to a seat for him. Shaw says his unknown patron probably sees him on the way out, then puts it out so he'll get it on the return trip.

On the downside, he stepped on something sharp and got a bad infection about four months ago, he said. In May, he slipped on some slick grass and fell. His doctor was out of the country when his X-rays were delivered, so he continued on his route for about five weeks before he knew he had broken his hip.

While Shaw's recent forays take him farther afield, his longtime efforts of keeping his immediate neighborhood clean have been noticed, too.

And that's been hard, because the only thing between the railroad tracks and McKinley Avenue is a dirt strip.

"The dumped trash - God almighty - this is a second dump right over here," said Angelo Zanini, 81, who has lived next door to Shaw for 40 years. "He's a good neighbor." Zanini said he's seen Shaw put 20 tires or other ridiculous amounts of trash into piles for easy pickup.

And Shaw will not stay quiet if he sees someone about to dump some trash, Zanini said. "If he sees anybody throwing trash, he doesn't hesitate."

That's not what San Joaquin County officials recommend people do. "If they see someone dumping, they should call 911. That's a crime in progress," county Public Works Deputy Director Jim Stone said.

The county doesn't have the resources to pick up scattered litter around the roadways, but it will respond to piles or large discarded items, Stone said. The county spends about $800,000 in cleaning up after illegal dumpers in unincorporated areas. And putting it in piles is a way that people living in the county can help the department keep neighborhoods clean, he said.

Shaw said he's not always successful in getting the county to pick up bags and piles found along his route.

In response to Shaw's complaints of speeding, the county has also set up temporary trailers that flash back the speeds that drivers are traveling.

Dodgie Vidad, a county traffic engineer, said he applauds that kind of engagement. "(Shaw) steps back and takes a look and says, 'What can I do for my community?' "

Shaw said he's trying to get another government agency to donate some large plastic bags that he can fill up for easier pickup.

Despite the obstacles, Shaw says he'd like to continue walking his route two or three times a week.

"Once I get it clean, I want to keep it that way."

Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/johnsonblog and on Twitter @zacharykjohnson.